Niger State House of Assembly has said that the 2020 budget of the state has been reduced by 21.23 percent following the outbreak of the dreaded coronavirus.
The earlier Appropriation Bill passed into law by the House was N155, 459,814,700.82, but now reduced to N122, 448,111, 676.00.
This was contained in the report of Committee on Planning and Appropriation on Review of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) 2020-2022 as adopted by the Assembly.
Reading the report of the committee, the chairman and member representing Wushishi Constituency, Hon. Muhammad Lokogoma said the review of indices and other revenue projections led to a reduction in the budget size.
In carrying out this, he said the committee invited the relevant stakeholders, such as the State Planning Commission and ministry for finance for the interface, which he said is basis of the report.
According to him, the adjustments resulted in a drop in projected statutory allocation from N66.79 billion to N40.53 billion, representing 39% decline in the estimated statutory allocation.
Other areas, Lokogoma said affected included the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) reviewed downward from N18.69 billion in the 2020 Appropriation Bill to N14.38 billion, representing 23%.